Changes

The overall chain of islands continues relatively regularly from Kyushu to Taiwan, with one island, or small group of islands, after another, such that one can travel from one island to another without ever being out of sight of land (provided it's a clear day); however, there is a significant gap, 270 km wide, between Okinawa and the islands to the south, known as the Kerama Gap.<ref>Pearson, 4.</ref> As a result, while the people of Okinawa and the various islands north of it engaged in considerable trade with one another and with "mainland" Japan, the islanders of Sakishima remained disconnected from those interactions until around the 11th century CE.<ref name=pear1>Pearson, 1.</ref> While the Amami and Okinawa Island groups show cultural similarities and connections with [[Jomon period|Jômon]] and [[Yayoi period]] Japan, in the style of their pottery, stone tools, etc., Sakishima shows no such cultural elements; similarities or connections are seen, instead, with the ancient cultures of Taiwan, Indonesia, and other parts of maritime Southeast Asia.<ref name=akamine3>Akamine Mamoru, Lina Terrell (trans.), Robert Huey (ed.), ''The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia'', University of Hawaii Press (2017), 3.</ref>  

The overall chain of islands continues relatively regularly from Kyushu to Taiwan, with one island, or small group of islands, after another, such that one can travel from one island to another without ever being out of sight of land (provided it's a clear day); however, there is a significant gap, 270 km wide, between Okinawa and the islands to the south, known as the Kerama Gap.<ref>Pearson, 4.</ref> As a result, while the people of Okinawa and the various islands north of it engaged in considerable trade with one another and with "mainland" Japan, the islanders of Sakishima remained disconnected from those interactions until around the 11th century CE.<ref name=pear1>Pearson, 1.</ref> While the Amami and Okinawa Island groups show cultural similarities and connections with [[Jomon period|Jômon]] and [[Yayoi period]] Japan, in the style of their pottery, stone tools, etc., Sakishima shows no such cultural elements; similarities or connections are seen, instead, with the ancient cultures of Taiwan, Indonesia, and other parts of maritime Southeast Asia.<ref name=akamine3>Akamine Mamoru, Lina Terrell (trans.), Robert Huey (ed.), ''The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia'', University of Hawaii Press (2017), 3.</ref>  

Likely the earliest textual reference to "Ryûkyû" (C: ''Liúqiú'') is in the ''[[Book of Sui]]'' ([[636]]), the official history of the [[Sui Dynasty]] ([[589]]-[[607]]).<ref>Kreiner, Josef. "Ryukyuan History in Comparative Perspective." in Kreiner (ed.) ''Ryukyu in World History''. Bonn: Biersche Verlagsanstalt, 2001. p3.</ref> The text relates that [[Emperor Yang of Sui]] dispatched ships to search for the "Land of Happy Immortals." What they found instead was ''Liuqiu'', which might refer either to the Ryukyu Islands, or to [[Taiwan]], as is the case for the term throughout much pre-modern Chinese texts. According to the ''Sui shi'', the Chinese then demanded [[tribute]] from the islanders, and met resistance; the battle ended in a thousand islanders being taken forcibly to China.<ref name=chan89>Chan Yingkit. “A Bridge between Myriad Lands: The Ryukyu Kingdom and Ming China (1372-1526),” MA Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2010, 8-9.</ref> A mission from China traveled to "Liuqiu" again the following year, but only to return armor worn by the Ryukyuan captives.<ref>Akamine, 4.</ref> Still, there were connections and interactions between the islanders and China; [[Warring States Period]] coins, known in Japanese as ''[[meitosen|meitôsen]]'' have been found in the Ryukyus, as well as coins from the [[Han Dynasty|Han]] and [[Tang Dynasty|Tang Dynasties]], and personal ornaments with ''[[taotie]]'' designs. Meanwhile, texts such as the ''[[Nihon shoki]]'' and ''[[Shoku Nihongi]]'' similarly show that the peoples of some of these islands paid "tribute" to Japanese courts or polities as early as the 7th century.<ref>Akamine, 3-4.</ref>

Likely the earliest textual reference to "Ryûkyû" (C: ''Liúqiú'') is in the ''[[Book of Sui]]'' ([[636]]), the official history of the [[Sui Dynasty]] ([[589]]-[[607]]).<ref>Kreiner, Josef. "Ryukyuan History in Comparative Perspective." in Kreiner (ed.) ''Ryukyu in World History''. Bonn: Biersche Verlagsanstalt, 2001. p3.</ref> The text relates that [[Emperor Yang of Sui]] dispatched ships to search for the "Land of Happy Immortals." What they found instead was ''Liuqiu'', which might refer either to the Ryukyu Islands, or to [[Taiwan]], as is the case for the term throughout much pre-modern Chinese texts. According to the ''Sui shi'', the Chinese then demanded [[tribute]] from the islanders, and met resistance; the battle ended in a thousand islanders being taken forcibly to China.<ref name=chan89>Chan Yingkit. “A Bridge between Myriad Lands: The Ryukyu Kingdom and Ming China (1372-1526),” MA Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2010, 8-9.</ref> A mission from China traveled to "Liuqiu" again the following year, but only to return armor worn by the Ryukyuan captives.<ref>Akamine, 4.</ref> Still, there were connections and interactions between the islanders and China; [[Warring States Period]] coins, known in Japanese as ''[[meitosen|meitôsen]]'' have been found in the Ryukyus, as well as coins from the [[Han Dynasty|Han]] and [[Tang Dynasty|Tang Dynasties]], and personal ornaments with ''[[taotie]]'' designs. Meanwhile, texts such as the ''[[Nihon shoki]]'' and ''[[Shoku Nihongi]]'' similarly suggest that the peoples of some of these islands paid "tribute" to Japanese courts or polities as early as the 7th century.<ref>Akamine, 3-4.</ref>  Such sources indicate that a number of imperial court officials including one named [[Ono Okeji|Ôno Okeji]] traveled to [[Amami Oshima|Amami]], [[Ishigaki Island|Ishigaki]], [[Kumejima]], and other islands in [[714]] and brought 52 islanders back to [[Nara]], and that from that time forward the islands paid "tribute" to the Court and received official rank in return; this did not last long, with tribute embassies from the islands to Nara ending after [[727]]. However, the [[Dazaifu]] is said to have created in [[735]] a series of charts or records of the names and locations of each of the islands, their distance from Dazaifu, and the locations of sources of fresh water in the islands, among other information, for the benefit of [[kentoshi|Japanese embassies to China]], missions to rescue castaways, and other such situations.<ref>Gallery labels, Amami Tatsugo Shima Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49491207212/sizes/4k/]</ref>

Excavations have also uncovered [[Tang Dynasty|Tang]] and [[Northern Song Dynasty]] coins, as well as Song and [[Yuan Dynasty]] Chinese trade ceramics in considerable numbers in Ryûkyû, indicating considerable commercal contact from a relatively early time. [[Richard Pearson]] argues that these trade ceramics were so plentiful as to not be luxury items in Ryûkyû, but rather that they were used by common people alongside indigenously-made [[Ryukyuan pottery]]. The import of coins seems to have reached a peak in the Northern Song ([[960]]-[[1127]]), and then to have declined considerably in the 13th century.<ref>Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 218-219.</ref>

Excavations have also uncovered [[Tang Dynasty|Tang]] and [[Northern Song Dynasty]] coins, as well as Song and [[Yuan Dynasty]] Chinese trade ceramics in considerable numbers in Ryûkyû, indicating considerable commercal contact from a relatively early time. [[Richard Pearson]] argues that these trade ceramics were so plentiful as to not be luxury items in Ryûkyû, but rather that they were used by common people alongside indigenously-made [[Ryukyuan pottery]]. The import of coins seems to have reached a peak in the Northern Song ([[960]]-[[1127]]), and then to have declined considerably in the 13th century.<ref>Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 218-219.</ref>